July, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Chester Thomas Looking Forward To By My Standards’ Rematch With Tom’s D’Etat In Whitney

Allied Racing Stables' Chester Thomas will celebrate his first starter at Saratoga Race Course when By My Standards bursts from the gate as one of five millionaires in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney, a 1 1/8-mile test for 4-year-olds and upward.

Whitney Day will feature three Grade 1 events, led by the historic Whitney, with an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Keeneland on the line. The card is bolstered by the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign presented by NYRA Bets, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Distaff in November; and the Grade 1, $300,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial presented by Runhappy for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs. The stakes-laden card also includes the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green for 4-year-olds and up on the turf and the $200,000 Caress, a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for older fillies and mares. The card will be broadcast on Saratoga Live beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern on FOX Sports and MSG Networks.

Trained by Bret Calhoun, the son of leading third-crop sire Goldencents has already given Thomas a couple of “firsts” in providing the Kentucky native with a first graded stakes win in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby last March at Fair Grounds, which propelled him to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby – Thomas' first starter in the 'Run for the Roses' – where he was elevated to 11th.

By My Standards arrives at the Whitney off a runner-up effort to Toms d'Etat, the Whitney's 6-5 morning line favorite, in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster on June 27 at Churchill Downs where he tracked the pace but was unable to catch the leader, who set a tepid pace under Miguel Mena.

“Our horse came out of the race very well,” Thomas said. “He kept his weight up and we're competitive and we like to win, but these races aren't easy. Toms d'Etat ran a huge race at Churchill. I give Miguel Mena a lot of credit, he took control of the race right out of the gate. The fractions were fairly slow at the beginning, and you aren't chasing a horse like that down with those kinds of fractions. Coming in second is not bad, so we're looking forward to trying again.”

Following the Kentucky Derby, By My Standards received a freshening but returned with a six-length optional claiming victory at Fair Grounds which he followed up with Grade 2 scores in the New Orleans Classic and Oaklawn Handicap.

“He's by far better than he was last year. He was coming into himself very well,” Thomas said. “The Louisiana Derby shocked everybody, and we thought he had a real shot in the race back then. The Derby was hard on him and we gave him all the time off he needed. He got his foot issues squared away and Bret has been meticulous with everything he's done.”

By My Standards defeated eight graded stakes winners, including subsequent Grade 2 Suburban victor Tacitus in the Oaklawn Handicap, registering a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.

“The races haven't gotten any easier, especially the Oaklawn Handicap. That was a stacked race,” said Thomas. “We're excited to be a part of it and hopefully we can get our first Saratoga win.”

Thomas, who also owns multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Money and stakes winner Mr. Big News with Calhoun, said he hopes for another strong race on Saturday from By My Standards.

“Bret has done just a beautiful job. The horse has come back and is doing really well,” Thomas said. “No doubt this is a very tough race even with only five horses. They're all very, very good horses. Code of Honor is clearly a super horse. Toms d'Etat is a super horse, so it's going to take a super horse to win that race Saturday.”

Thomas could double up his Saratoga starters with Mr. Big News, who is a possibility for the $500,000 Saratoga Derby, part of the Turf Triple Series for 3-year-olds at 1 3/16-miles on August 15.

“His pedigree screams turf,” Thomas said of the sophomore son of Giant's Causeway, who won the Oaklawn Stakes two starts back. “In the Blue Grass, he stumbled out of the gate and the track was speed-biased. It might be a good time to look at turf racing with him.”

Bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation, Mr. Big News is out of the Galileo mare Unappeased, who is a half to multiple graded stakes winner on grass Sligo Bay.

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This Side Up: D-Day for Baffert’s Coolmore Pair

He’s like the clean-cut, wide-eyed rookie sent into the lines, trying to read the expressions of the relieved troops. What might the likes of Charlatan (Speightstown) and Nadal (Blame) tell this star cadet, as they hand over the trenches, to steel him for the challenges ahead? Cezanne (Curlin) probably thinks they could do with a shave, and shouldn’t be smoking on duty. But then he will notice the medals on their chests, and start to ask himself whether he too will step up; whether he will live up to everything his instructors thought they could see on the parade ground.

Charlatan and Nadal won early battles, of course, before being forced out of the GI Kentucky Derby trail, but their general Bob Baffert has already ordered reinforcements into the breach. Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo) is evidently going after the East’s leading colt next weekend, and meanwhile he deploys Cezanne against the premier sophomore on his home front.

Having previously professed faith in the calm genius of his trainer, we will defer for now what would otherwise seem the obvious concern about Honor A.P. (Honor Code): that he will be required to beat more horses in a single race, come Derby day, than he will have encountered in his whole life outside maiden company. Instead we’ll focus not just on Cezanne, but on another Baffert sophomore who likewise weaves a fascinating sub-plot into an epic Saturday.

Cezanne and Eight Rings (Empire Maker) have very different profiles, to this point, but they do have one important thing in common. The critical tests they undertake, on either coast, will go a long way to determining the yield (or otherwise) on hefty investment made by John Magnier and various partners.

For Magnier, having brought consecutive Triple Crown winners to Ashford out of his barn, has shown his faith in the Baffert program by seeking its next champions at a rather earlier stage of their development.

Cezanne topped the Gulfstream Sale last year, at $3.65 million; and it’s safe to assume that pretty giddy stakes were also required to complete a deal to stand Eight Rings, on his retirement, just days before he lined up for the GI TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. An Eclipse Award was plainly in the offing that day, but he blew what hindsight suggests to have been a golden opportunity and fared no better when resurfacing at Oaklawn in the spring.

Since returning to the worktab, however, Eight Rings has teased his ownership group–a formidable assembly, even before the advent of Coolmore–that he may yet turn things round. In his four latest breezes, he has clocked a quicker time than 209 of 212 other animals going the same distance. And it’s not as though his reputation ever depended only on what he did in the mornings. Juveniles don’t make all in Grade I races, roaring away by six lengths with the eventual class champion toiling in third, unless they have a ton of natural talent.

We know that Thoroughbreds are complicated creatures, seldom with a single lock taking a single key. But if Baffert has figured out where the real Eight Rings has been hiding, his latest comeback in the GI Allen Jerkens S., presented by Runhappy, could yet intrude on back-to-back weekends potentially showcasing sons of Violence–No Parole succeeding Volatile–as the fastest of their respective crops.

Cezanne, for his part, holds rather more appeal for romantics (whose instinct is naturally to root for the underdog) than tends to be the case with sale-toppers. Apart from anything else, we do occasionally need our beliefs regarding pedigree, conformation and so on to work out sufficiently for this business to be sustainable and, if Cezanne is to prove one of the poster boys, then that’s a gratifying prospect for the many friends of the late J.J. Crupi.

Nobody cherished Crupi more than Vinnie Viola of St Elias Stables, who co-bred Cezanne and retained a stake after his sale. Not merely because he acquired Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song) through Crupi as a yearling, and also shared in the success of Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), but primarily because of an exceptional personal rapport.

On losing his friend, just weeks after the Fasig-Tipton sale, Viola’s tribute was pitch-perfect. Anyone can achieve a superficial eloquence by sheer craft, by an intelligent sense for the weight or rhythm of words. But you can only introduce that authenticating, third dimension when you also talk from the heart, as Viola did then. Even as he grieved Crupi, he made him live again. For most of us, even everyday situations tend to leave us only groping towards what we wish to convey. But here was an occasion when the usual poverty of language was rendered equal to the richness of a human life. So while firmly committed to Honor A.P., I do wish Mr. Viola and his partners well with Cezanne in the Shared Belief S.

Besides, he is out of a Bernardini mare. It is only a few days since we celebrated this extraordinarily precocious broodmare sire, but already yet another of his daughters has since produced a Grade I winner in Paris Lights (Curlin). This year, of course, Bernardini also has a colt in play for the Derby–and the people behind Art Collector certainly command respect and affection, too, as we’ll be reiterating in the days ahead.

In the meantime Cezanne can seek a chink in the Honor A.P. armour that seems likely to close up once he gets a chance to use that low, unrelenting stride over a longer distance. Whatever he may lack in seasoning, Honor A.P. at least seems sure to relish the stamina demands of the Churchill cavalry charge.

One way or another, it’s a day when Coolmore’s chips with Baffert are piled pretty high. Eight Rings was named for the Super Bowl accomplishments of football coach Bill Belichick, who was apparently also in mind (though I’m straying well beyond home ground here) in Bon Jovi’s Bounce: ‘I’ll take the hit but not the fall’ etc. Though some may have counted Eight Rings out, this is the day he could well come bouncing back again.

But it’s a famous line from Belichick himself that comes to mind with Cezanne: “Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling.”

I don’t know what they engraved on Crupi’s tomb instead, but that would surely have met the case just as well.

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Keeneland, Fasig-Tipton Lobbying For Overseas Buyers

Overseas buyers are an ever-increasing fixture of the American yearling sales. It is not only the big-spending Maktoum family and Coolmore partners who are vital to the health of the market; an international presence stimulates spending at all levels of trade, fueled by visitors from all across Europe-not least the pinhookers who have enjoyed so much success with their buys at the breeze-ups-and Asia, Australasia and the Middle East.

Global travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have, naturally, caused some unrest in the minds of sellers as they put the finishing touches on their yearlings ahead of Fasig-Tipton’s Selected Yearling Showcase in Lexington on Sept. 9 and 10 and Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale from Sept. 13 to 25. Foreign nationals traveling from Europe-as well as Brazil, Iran and China– are currently not permitted to enter the U.S., but Keeneland Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Vince Gabbert said that Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton are together working with government officials on an effort to allow foreign buyers to gain entry for the sales. Gabbert said he is “cautiously optimistic” that they will reach an agreement.

“The way we’ve approached this has been a combination between what we’re seeing with the sports leagues and what we know from a business interest side,” Gabbert said. “We’ve been working very closely with homeland security and we’ve essentially engaged every person we can get a hold of to help us with this, from Congressman [Andy] Barr, who has been extremely helpful from the outset-Senator [Mitch] McConnell, Ambassador [Kelly] Craft and Commissioner [Ryan] Quarles through his relationships with the USDA and Secretary [Sonny] Perdue [of the USDA]. All of them have been really willing to help us and to foster these conversations with homeland security because there are specific waivers that we will have to fill out for our customers who want to travel to make sure they’re able to get over here. All of our conversations with them have been, ‘tell us what protocols you need us to follow for you to have confidence that we’re not going to create an issue, and we’ll do that.’ All of those folks have been extremely helpful, and each individual I’ve mentioned has assigned a specific staffer to our issue so we have specific folks in each of those offices that we’re working with to make sure we get as many people over here as possible.”

Gabbert said ensuring government has an understanding of the importance and economic impact of the Thoroughbred industry is a priority for the Keeneland staff even during normal times, and so the foundation was already laid.

“I feel good about the conversations we’ve had,” he said. “I feel really good about the effort that our government officials are putting in on our behalf. A lot of it is just working through that bureaucracy that just automatically exists within government. I’m cautiously optimistic; we feel like we have a good plan in place for the entirety of the sale and we’re working in concert with Fasig-Tipton as well so we have the same protocols in both places and we’re working together with them on this request as well, so this has been a joint request on behalf of both sales companies. We have an unprecedented partnership with how we’re working together and I feel good about the request and what we’ve put in place. We just have to continue to navigate it and make sure we’re talking to the right folks.”

While overseas visitors may be faced with quarantines upon returning to their home countries, Gabbert said that doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm.

“A lot of our international buyers, especially the Europeans, have expressed a strong, strong interest in coming over here regardless of what happens when they get back,” he said. “We are very excited about the amount of enthusiasm that people are showing in wanting to be here. We’re doing everything we can and we’re fortunate there are still a number of countries that are not on that prohibition. Japan, Australia, and a number of the South American countries that are our markets as well, people are free to travel to and from. They may have different requirements when they return to their home countries, but we are going to do everything we can from a protocol standpoint and everything we can to provide a safe and secure facility so people can come over here with confidence and return home with confidence.”

Gabbert said at this stage that it doesn’t look as if visitors will be required to quarantine when arriving in Kentucky, but COVID testing may be a part of the process.

“We don’t have everything finalized but we’re working very closely with our local health department and both us and Fasig-Tipton are working very closely with local health professionals to make sure that we’re following all the recommendations from the CDC and the local health department,” he said. “Right now we would not anticipate any need for a quarantine or for people to isolate once they get here, but we are looking at what might be available from a testing standpoint, how we monitor that-our goal is to give everybody the confidence that they’re coming onto the grounds in a safe and secure manner, and what all does that entail? Testing is part of that, enforcing social distancing and requiring a mask, reducing capacity in the sales pavilion but still providing other opportunities for people to bid on horses; those are the things we’re working through.”

Gabbert acknowledged that the presence of overseas buyers is “extremely important” and that the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton teams will continue to lobby for their presence and update their customers along the way.

“I can’t emphasize enough how much we need and want everybody that can get here to get here,” he said. “Especially when you look throughout the sale, each book essentially has a really different feel to it and it’s imperative that we maintain that strength and that buying bench throughout the entire sale, and the international presence is a tremendous part of that. We’re going to keep working on it until we get definition and we’ll be communicating out to our customers and if there is paperwork they have to fill out we’ll be in a spot to assist them to navigate that process.”

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Diamond Oops To Prep For Smile Sprint Defense In Sunday’s Opening Lead Stakes

Multiple graded-stakes winner Diamond Oops will face six rivals in Sunday's $60,000 Opening Lead at Gulfstream Park while prepping for a title defense in the Sept. 5 Smile Sprint (G3).

The Patrick Biancone-trained 5-year-old earned graded-stakes credentials with an off-the-pace three-quarters of a length triumph in last year's Smile, which the son of Lookin At Lucky used as a springboard for back-to-back Grade 1 second-place finishes in New York and Kentucky in his next two starts.

This year, Biancone has no plans to stray from South Florida in the foreseeable future.

“We decided to stay and run here and then the Smile,” said Biancone, who had entertained the idea of running Diamond Oops in the July 4 Met Mile (G1) at Belmont. “Last year, there was no Covid-19. Andie, my daughter, travels with the horses. I don't want to take the risk that she gets sick or something.”

Biancone, whose daughter serves as his assistant at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, is looking for Diamond Oops to improve off his second-place finish as the even-money favorite in the June 13 Coaltown Handicap, in which he conceded seven pounds to victorious Eye of a Jedi while making his first start in nearly five months.

“He had no excuse. The winner came on the outside and he didn't see him. It was a good race,” Biancone said.

Last year, after winning the Smile, Diamond Oops went on to finish second behind Imperial Hint in the six-furlong Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) at Saratoga and a game second in the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) at Keeneland. He subsequently finished a troubled eighth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) before concluding the 2019 season with a victory in the Mr. Prospector (G3) at Gulfstream for Diamond 100 Racing Club LLC, D P Racing LLC, Patrick Biancone Racing LLC and Amy Dunne.

Although a one-turn specialist, Diamond Oops ran in the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup (G1) Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park, acquitting himself nicely with a fourth-place finish in a field of 10.

Luca Panici, who rode Diamond Oops for the first time in the Coaltown Handicap, has the return mount in Sunday's six-furlong overnight stakes for 3-year-olds and up.

Monarch Stables Inc.'s Art G is Back is scheduled to be back in action Sunday after a seven-month layoff. The 4-year-old son of Exchange Rate had a busy and successful 3-year-old campaign, in which he won a pair of stakes and placed in fourth other stakes.

“He looks fabulous. The rest did him good,” trainer Ron Spatz said. “Hopefully, he runs well.”

Art G is Back ran 13 times at distances between seven furlongs and 1 1/16 miles, winning four of six starts over the Gulfstream Park main track, including two stakes wins at seven furlongs.

“He's never run six furlongs. I think it's a little bit short. This is a spot to jump off,” said Spatz, who also saddled Art G is Back for three stakes placings on turf.

Miguel Vasquez, who was aboard for Art G is Back's victory in the Thirsty Fish last year, will be reunited with the Florida-bred colt.

Jacks or Better Farm Inc.'s Garter and Tie will seek his first victory in six starts since capturing the Ocala Stakes by 10 ½ lengths prior to finishing fifth behind Diamond Oops in last year's Smile. The 4-year-old homebred son of Brooks 'n Down has captured three stakes over the Gulfstream track, including the $200,000 Florida Sire Stakes Affirmed in 2018.

Emisael Jaramillo has the call on the Ralph Nicks-trained half-brother to Shivaree, who finished second in the March 28 Curlin Florida Derby (G1).

Imaginary Stables and Glenn K. Ellis' Royal Squeeze, who finished fourth in last year's Smile, will seek his 11th career win over the Gulfstream track Sunday. The Elizabeth Dobles-trained 8-year-old gelding has won four stakes at Gulfstream and is coming off a May 31 optional claiming allowance victory.

Victor Lebron has the return call aboard the won of Wildcat Heir.

Mi Tres Por Ciento, a multiple-stakes winner in Chile who won his U.S. debut at Gulfstream three starts back, is scheduled to make his first start for owners Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher and trainer Michael Maker after being claimed for $62,500 out of his most recent start.

Edgard Zayas has the call aboard in the 5-year-old gelding.

My Purple Haze Stables' Cool Arrow and Linda Riznick's Running for Riz round out the field.

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